I’ve been thinking a lot about choices lately. Those of you who have been following this blog for a while, know that there are times when I don’t agree with some writers’ choices. However, I’ve always respected these choices. If I see something I feel is unfair I’ll call attention to it, but I still respect a writer’s choice to make his own decision. It has nothing to do with “empowering” you to do better because we present you with the tools to achieve whatever level of writing and pay you wish to achieve every single day. It’s not about tough love or slapping you into reality, because we’re all adults and I don’t believe in talking down to adults…or children for that matter.
There’s something more to it though.
I grew up the fourth of six children. My mother was an assistant English professor and my father was a librarian. Both of these were very low paying careers and we had very little money growing up. But you know what? We were all happy. We had a good childhood. We didn’t have riches and we didn’t have the fancy toys and electronics our friends had, but we had a good life. Many people looked down at my parents for not dropping the jobs they loved to make a better life for us, but they were happy. We were happy. They were making an honest living and they taught us a thing or two about the important things in life.
I don’t knock an honest living. In this economy people do what they have to in order to put food on the table. If that means taking an entry level writing job instead of robbing banks and stealing from neighbors, I respect that choice. It’s not lazy to take an entry level writing job, not when you’re putting in eight good hours of work and have a tidy pay check to show for it. Your choice may not be my choice but I will always respect your decision. Sometimes if there’s something I don’t agree with, I’ll speak up about it, but I hope I never make anyone feel bad about their choices and if I ever did this in the past I’m very sorry. Though I’ve tried it (and failed miserably) in the past, the tough love approach isn’t me. However, if it’s your thing, I can recommend plenty of writing experts who would like to tell you how wrong you are for making an honest living or not making the choices they feel you should make.
I’m not for low pay. I’m not for no pay. I know writers can earn thousands of dollars for one article if they hit the right niche and market. I will always encourage you to reach for the stars. However, I also know writers make the decision that will pay the bills, or they will work at jobs they enjoy, even if those jobs don’t pay thousands of dollars for a piece of writing. It’s your choice. You’re making an honest living. I have nothing but respect for you and your choice.
Making a living has to be more than a dollar amount – living is more than money! My husband left his regular paycheck because of the time away from the family and the stress involved in the work place. Our family may not have as much money now but we have much more of a living!
Nice post – There is a lot of ‘writer bashing’ going around these days. While I understand solidarity among freelancers for a fair wage, I can’t bring myself to undermine writers who simply don’t have a lot of choices right now.
goodness… if we were all about high paying careers, we really shouldn’t be in the writing biz at all. of course, there are a few really high paying opportunities in the writing world, but overall we’d be far better off as lawyers, architects, financial gurus…
natch, it’s a far far better thing to make $100/hour than $8, and to make that $100/hour 40 hours a week. But if that’s your primary goal, I’d recommend searching around for more lucrative, reliable careers than freelance writing!
Lisa
Great post. I’m glad you’ve realized this, plenty of people don’t ever take this step. It’s common not just in the writing field, but pretty much every area of life.
I have learned in my limited life experience to steer clear of anyone who spends much time telling other people what is best or “the only way”. Everyone wants different things and has different needs. You can gather your 100 best friends to all read the same post on the web, and you’ll get at least 20 different opinions. (Religious texts are famous for this phenomenon.)
All anyone can do is to say what is best for them. People can show others how to do things a certain way they feel is best, but to say that someone’s lifestyle or work choice is wrong is never accurate. Sure, it may be wrong for you, but they may be perfectly at peace doing that low-paying teaching job or housekeeping position.
You don’t like that lifestyle? Then don’t live that lifestyle. Don’t fuss about what I’m doing with mine. Live and let live and all that.
Doing what you love makes all the difference in the world. Great pay is pretty meaningless if your spending eight or more hours a day doing something you hate.
Years ago, I went to a seminar where the speaker asked us to come up with our “F-you” figure. The figure was the amount it would take to quit your current job, drop the career, and never go back to it again. You could do anything else, but not that career.
The amounts batted around were interesting. $5 million. $10 million. $20 million. One would not quit for any amount. Me? As I listened to the numbers, I was struck that there seemed to be three distinct groups: the folks who loved what they were doing; the people who expected a big payoff for their work; and those who were just trying to earn a living.
Me? I was in the the third group. My figure was $850,000 – enough to pay off my house and bills, and live comfortably off the interest income. I didn’t have a child then, so it was a bit easier.
I am, by nature, a creative soul, and what I was doing just did not fuel that fire. But I was at that job because it paid well. The irony? I left a job that paid a fair wage, but where I got to write every day.
Now, I’m working a job that just barely pays the bills. It’s not anywhere close to a creative job, but it has benefits and keeps the bill collectors off the doorstep – most of the time. I write when I can, but working 45+ hours and raising a very bright 6-year-old is exhausting. I try to write nightly, but some nights I just end up asleep at the keyboard.
This is not a plea for sympathy. This is a “thank you” for the acknowledgment that some of us may have the passion to write, but haven’t found the way to make it work in their lives. From the trenches, I heartily thank you.